[Dan Day]

Did oil and natural gas production by the planet stop the day the first oil well tapped in? No, of course not. Oil and natural gas are being constantly renewed, it cannot be otherwise.

Correct, of course.

The rate of renewal versus the rate of usage might be a question, and perhaps these can be brought into balance by increasing production artificially and reducing usage by going to other energy sources.

Then again, "perhaps" not.

I've heard a lot of people get all excited about that prospect, but most likely the "renewal" rate is glacierly slow compared to the rate we're consuming it. For example, if it takes a "mere" ten million years for a reservoir to form, that means that we're using it up roughly a million times faster than it can be renewed. Even if we could speed up the natural process by a factor of ten-thousand-fold, it would only increase our actual pumping yield by a whopping 1%...

Achieving that balance will also be more expensive than now. Oil and natural gas are about the cheapest commodities there are.

The other catch is that it's likely that speeding up the natural process would necessarily involve our *adding* energy to the system -- at least as much (and probably more) than we'd get from subsequently using the resulting "fast oil". There ain't no such thing as a free lunch, energy-wise.

[RightWhale]

Was thinking of huge factories with vats of oil microbes bubbling and making oil for our machines, and nuke power plants taking over primary energy production from oil and natural gas. Coal-fired plants would work for a couple of centuries more, too, and then we could migrate to charcoal. It will cost more than our present bargain, but there is no need to fear running out of oil.

[lepton]

The other catch is that it's likely that speeding up the natural process would necessarily involve our *adding* energy to the system

Maybe we can use nuclear power for that... :)